just read the ari interview and had a question for devs (I'm an end user myself and know little about the dev process).

Maemo is labeled as 'open source' but i see people mentioning that drivers and other hardware apis are closed.

is meego fully open source in all areas? what does taht mean to me as an end user when it comes to custom kernels/os/hardware functionality

thanks

The question will be more difficult to answer with MeeGo than it was with Maemo. - Maemo was always tied to a (Nokia) device; so when people said "It's not open because driver XY is closed source", they referred to a hardware+software system defined by one vendor.

MeeGo isn't tied to one single device. I guess we may see devices sold with MeeGo plus some proprietary drivers plus proprietary user interface components plus proprietary software... But does that say anything about MeeGo as an operating system if none of these proprietary components are needed to build+run MeeGo on some other reference hardware? I don't think so.

How would you answer a question like "Is Ubuntu 'truly' open?" if your Ubuntu system uses proprietary Flash, a proprietary driver for your graphic card and some non-free business software?

i was wondering the same thing the released code that was just command line all along when they had a version with gui elements obviously far ahead of what they let out to the community which was like pre aplha while there currently in what looks like beta

As an end user, you question can be answered after you get a MeeGo end product. If freedom is something that matters to you as an end user then you should get the right product accordingly. Of course, before having MeeGo products launched with all the specs this discussion is quite abstract.

It's like water. Is water really free? Up in the hills and in the public fountains it is free, but you might end up paying (and a lot) for the same water if bottled with an advertised brand and consumed in a late night club.